ArtSlant - Recently addedhttp://www.artslant.com/ew/Events/show
en-us40 - Cleveland Museum of Art - November 14th - April 24th, 2016<div class="field field-name-events-info-and-links field-type-ds field-label-hidden">
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<p style="text-align: justify;">Drawn from the Cleveland Museum of Art&rsquo;s renowned collection of Chinese paintings and in celebration the museum&rsquo;s 100th anniversary in 2016, this small but potent exhibition features ten masterworks of Chinese art. A fine assemblage in various subjects and styles, spanning from the Song to the Qing dynasties, provides a visual feast: all are rare treasures and iconic works.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">From the grand conception of the cosmic order in a monumental Song landscape to the intimate visions in literati paintings; from the representations of the natural and human world to the free imaginings of the mythical and religious realms; from the pursuit of antiquity to the selective borrowing of foreign styles, these works offer fascinating insights into a venerable Chinese art tradition that is marked by diversity and transformation.Given that the fragile, light-sensitive artworks can only be displayed in limited rotation, this exhibition provides an exceptional opportunity for enjoying these masterworks all at once.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The exhibition also celebrates a new book release, <em>Silent Poetry: Chinese Paintings from the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> by Ju Hsi Chou and Anita Chung, which presents the most up-to-date research on the museum&rsquo;s significant holdings.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Julia and Larry Pollock Focus Gallery</strong></p>
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</div>Sun, 02 Aug 2015 18:00:20 +0000http://www.artslant.com/ew/Events/listhttp://www.artslant.com/ew/Events/list
- Cleveland Museum of Art - October 31st - March 6th, 2016<div class="field field-name-events-info-and-links field-type-ds field-label-hidden">
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<p style="text-align: justify;">Throughout the history of art, artists have made exquisite renderings of the garden. In a selection of 50 drawings, prints, illuminated manuscripts, Indian miniatures, textiles, and decorative arts from the museum&rsquo;s collection, this exhibition will transport viewers from the cloistered gardens of the Middle Ages, Persian love gardens, and formal gardens of the Italian Renaissance and Baroque France to the Impressionist&rsquo;s backyard idylls and fantastical oases that exist only in artists&rsquo; imaginations.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">While the appeal of gardens has remained constant, the way artists have portrayed them has varied dramatically depending on the era, cultural associations, and medium selected by the artist. Representations of the garden during the Middle Ages were infused with allegorical meaning and intense spirituality, while depictions of Renaissance and Baroque gardens were manifestations of courtly wealth and power. The cult of nature and the nostalgic desire to seek solace in unspoiled idylls during the Enlightenment paved the way for visions of overgrown gardens, magnificent in their unbridled abundance. In the 19th century, the effects of industrialization and the rising middle class inspired a new kind of garden iconography: for the first time gardens were no longer the domain of the elite. Domestic, backyard gardens were a beloved subject of modern American and European artists, and with decorative objects and textiles adorned with natural motifs, the garden lived indoors throughout the year. The exhibition culminates with contemporary artist Jim Hodges&rsquo;s <em>In Blue</em> (1996), a scrim of silk blossoms that cascades from ceiling to floor, immersing the viewer in a floriferous environment.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Organized to complement the special, international exhibition <a href="http://www.artslant.com/ew/events/show/391746-painting-the-modern-garden-monet-to-matisse" target="_blank"><em>Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse</em></a>, <em>Imagining the Garden</em> will offer visitors an expanded vision of artistic conceptualizations of the garden. Excerpts from garden literature have been selected to accompany works of art in <em>Imagining the Garden</em>, and will be available on the Artlens app.</p>
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Claude Monet - Cleveland Museum of Art - October 11th - January 5th, 2016<div class="field field-name-events-info-and-links field-type-ds field-label-hidden">
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<p style="text-align: justify;">The Cleveland Museum of Art and the Royal Academy of Arts in London are organizing an innovative exhibition that examines the role of gardens in the paintings of Claude Monet and his contemporaries. Arguably the most important painter of gardens in the history of art, Monet was also an avid horticulturist who cultivated gardens wherever he lived. As early as the 1860s, a symbiotic relationship developed between his activities as a horticulturist and his paintings of gardens, a relationship that can be traced from his early years in Sainte-Adresse to his final months at Giverny. &ldquo;I perhaps owe it to flowers,&rdquo; he wrote, &ldquo;that I became a painter.&rdquo;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">While Monet remains the touchstone, the exhibition also looks broadly and deeply at the garden theme in modern art through the inclusion of paintings by other Impressionists, Postimpressionists, and avant-garde artists of the early 20th century. The exhibition will lead visitors through the evolution of the garden theme, from Impressionist visions of light and atmosphere to retreats for reverie and dreams, sites for bold experimentation, sanctuaries of refuge and healing, and, ultimately, signifiers of a world restored to order&mdash;a paradise regained. Framing these paintings in the context of broad artistic movements, as well as social and political events, will offer unprecedented paths for understanding the garden as a multifaceted, universal theme in modern art.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em>Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse</em> is organized by the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Royal Academy of Arts in London.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>The Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Hall and Gallery</strong></p>
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</div>Sun, 02 Aug 2015 17:55:27 +0000http://www.artslant.com/ew/Events/listhttp://www.artslant.com/ew/Events/list
Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, Gertrude Käsebier, Edward Weston, Karl Struss, Margaret Bourke-White, Jane Reece, Clarence H. White - Cleveland Museum of Art - September 5th - January 17th, 2016<div class="field field-name-events-info-and-links field-type-ds field-label-hidden">
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<p style="text-align: justify;">The first in-depth exploration of the museum&rsquo;s extensive, beautiful, and unique collection of American Pictorialist photography highlights work from this turn-of-the-twentieth-century international movement. It was the first concerted, widespread effort to release photography from the constraints of mechanical reproduction and elevate it to the realm of personal expression&mdash;that is, to the status of fine art.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Responding to the rapid expansion of cheap, commercial photography and the advent of the amateur &ldquo;snapshooter,&rdquo; the Pictorialists conceived of the medium as one of imagination rather than reportage. Emphasizing the hand and eye of the artist, its practitioners derived their inspiration from painting and drawing. In search of new ways to express artistic creativity through the camera, they either sought out new visions in the natural world or staged idyllic scenes.&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Photographers also experimented with new print media, freely manipulating both negative and print to construct elegant and distinctive compositions. The show features works by Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, Gertrude K&auml;sebier, Edward Weston, and Karl Struss as well as a number of Ohio artists including Margaret Bourke-White and Jane Reece.<br />&nbsp;<br />At the heart of the exhibition is a large group of prints by Clarence H. White, a leading Pictorialist who lived and photographed in Newark, Ohio, 1893&ndash;1906. These images were donated to the museum by the children of Julia McCune Flory, one of his favorite models, including his work prints&ndash;&ndash;rare documents that expose the artist&rsquo;s imaginative thought process to realize the composition.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Mark Schwartz and Bettina Katz Photography Gallery</strong></p>
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</div>Sun, 02 Aug 2015 17:52:23 +0000http://www.artslant.com/ew/Events/listhttp://www.artslant.com/ew/Events/list
- Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art - November 21st - April 10th, 2016<div>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Work by more than 80 artists featured in 'The 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art' (APT8) will reflect the vigour of expanding creative centres throughout Asia and the Pacific.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">With each iteration of the flagship <a href="https://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/about/our-story/apt" target="_blank">Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art</a> exhibition series, the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art &nbsp;examines developments in the contemporary art of Australia, Asia and the Pacific. APT8 emphasises performance, with live actions, video, kinetic art, figurative painting and sculpture exploring how the human form can express cultural, social and political ideas in times of enormous change.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The exhibition features more than 80 artists from over 30 countries including significant Australian involvement. Mongolia, Nepal, the Kyrgyz Republic, Iraq and Georgia will also be represented for the first time.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Major new commissions include a sprawling structural installation of found materials by India's Asim Waqif and an elegant suspended sculpture by South Korea's Haegue Yang.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The special focus projects in APT8 are Kalpa Vriksha: Contemporary Indigenous and Vernacular Art of India &mdash; the first major display of its kind in Australia &mdash; and the Melanesian performance project Yumi Danis (We Dance), which emerged from a creative exchange in Ambrym, Vanuatu, in 2014.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In addition to the exhibition itself, APT8 encompasses APT8 Live, an ongoing program of artist performances and projects; a conference as part of the opening program; extensive cinema programs; publications; and activities for kids and families.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Of the 160 biennials and triennials currently staged worldwide, the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art is the only exhibition series to focus on the contemporary art of Asia, Australia and the Pacific.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">APT8 CINEMA</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The Gallery's Australian Cin&eacute;math&egrave;que presents the best of regional cinema with free screenings across two thematic programs. Filipino Indie is a survey of independent and experimental filmmaking from the Philippines since 2000, with a focus on experimentation with documentary and the creation of fiction-documentary hybrids, alongside a pioneering use of digital filmmaking that is central to contemporary Filipino cinema. Pop Islam will reflect on different lived experience throughout the contemporary Islamic world from Australia and South East Asia to the Indian subcontinent, Central and West Asia and North Africa, exploring the complexities of faith in contemporary culture.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">APT8 KIDS</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In collaboration with the Gallery's Children's Art Centre, APT artists from Mongolia, South Korea, India, Malaysia, Iran, New Zealand and Australia are creating artworks and activities exploring contemporary art and ideas for young visitors and their families. APT8 Kids will present these immersive installations, hands-on activities and multimedia projects throughout the exhibition, and an accompanying children's activity book take will continue the journey, with an of exploration different ways to draw, make and create. APT8 Kids on Tour will bring many of the exhibition activities to children and families in regional and remote Queensland.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">APT8 OPENING WEEKEND</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The opening weekend of APT8, Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 November, will be rich with talks, discussion panels, tours and performances. Artists, curators and international and national guest speakers will examine individual works, overarching ideas and emergent themes in the exhibition.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">APT8 LIVE</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The first ever APT Live is an ongoing program of artist performances and projects that expand on the exhibition's emergent themes of the capacity of the human form to express ideas. Starting on the opening weekend and animating GOMA and QAG throughout the duration of the exhibition, APT8 Live gives performance an emphatic presence in the Triennial.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">APT8 CONFERENCE&nbsp;</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Monday 23 November 2015</strong><br /><strong>Ticketed, bookings essential | Registrations open August 2015</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Held immediately after the opening weekend, the APT8 Conference will invite leading thinkers from Australia, Asia and the Pacific to consider some of the key conceptual threads of APT8. Topics will include the varied uses of the human form in artistic expression and the significance of such practices in the region.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Immediately following the APT8 Conference, QAGOMA will be the venue for the&nbsp;<a class="ext-link" href="http://aaanz.info/aaanz-home/conferences/2015-conference/" target="_blank">2015 Art Association of Australia and New Zealand conference</a> on Tuesday 24 and Wednesday 25 November.</p>
</div>Sun, 02 Aug 2015 17:34:36 +0000http://www.artslant.com/ew/Events/listhttp://www.artslant.com/ew/Events/list
Daniel Crooks - Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art - August 8th 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM<p style="text-align: justify;">On the opening day of the 'Daniel Crooks' exhibition, hear from the artist in conversation with Amanda Slack-Smith, Associate Curator Australian Cin&eacute;math&egrave;que and gain insights into his career and current practice.</p>Sun, 02 Aug 2015 17:31:03 +0000http://www.artslant.com/ew/Events/listhttp://www.artslant.com/ew/Events/list
Daniel Crooks - Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art - August 8th - August 8th<div>
<p style="text-align: justify;">This exhibition acknowledges Daniel Crooks' significant contribution to new media art in Australia and traces the emergence of this recent transition into sculptural forms from his early works in video art and photography through to the present day.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Working across digital video, photography and now sculpture, his practice explores the elasticity of movement in time and space. Best known for his 'time slice' video technique &ndash; slicing ribbons of varying thicknesses into a video stream to create a lyrical displacement of time and space &ndash; Daniel Crooks has now extended these exploration into the real world through three dimensional sculptural works.</p>
</div>Sun, 02 Aug 2015 17:29:11 +0000http://www.artslant.com/ew/Events/listhttp://www.artslant.com/ew/Events/list
Mark Bradford, Taylor Davis, Tara Donovan, Kader Attia, Rachel Harrison, Charles LeDray, Roy McMakin, Josiah McElheny - ICA (The Institute of Contemporary Art - Boston) - July 23rd - July 17th, 2016<p style="text-align: justify;">Sculpture today is an expansive medium that includes a range of phenomena, forms, techniques, and materials; the category includes discrete objects, installations, staged video displays, and even performance. This collection display brings together works by a variety of artists who have used commonplace materials in new ways. Many employ everyday materials such as pins, glass, and wood, transcending their original function to suggest new material associations. Others use found objects and images to investigate socio-political contexts, creating new narratives for those objects. Yet other artists probe the complex relationship of rendering three-dimensional forms in two-dimensional moving and still image. These thematic threads, among others, reflect the expansive vitality and diversity of object-making today. Included will be works from Mark Bradford, Taylor Davis, Tara Donovan, Kader Attia, Rachel Harrison, Charles LeDray, Roy McMakin, and Josiah McElheny, among others.</p>Sun, 02 Aug 2015 17:14:09 +0000http://www.artslant.com/ew/Events/listhttp://www.artslant.com/ew/Events/list
Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee - Zentrum Paul Klee - June 19th - September 27th<div class="kmb_txt_lead">
<p style="text-align: justify;">Never before has such an outstanding selection of works from these two masters ever been united in one exhibition.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky &ndash; they are considered to be the &ldquo;founding fathers&rdquo; of &ldquo;classical modernism&rdquo; and their artists&rsquo; friendship to be one of the most fascinating of the twentieth century. Their relationship was shaped by mutual inspiration and support, but also by rivalry and competition &ndash; a combination that spurred both of them on in their artistic work. The exhibition &ldquo;Klee &amp; Kandinsky&rdquo; traces the eventful history of this artistic relationship over the long period from 1900 to 1940 for the very first time. It draws attention to parallels and similarities as well as differences and distinctions, with an emphasis on their personal and artistic dialogue at the time of the &ldquo;Blue Rider&rdquo; and the Bauhaus. The exhibition was created in cooperation with the St&auml;dtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau Munich, where it will be presented from 21 October 2015 to 24 January 2016.</p>
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<h4 style="text-align: justify;">Around 1900</h4>
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<p>&ldquo;I can dimly recollect Kandinsky and Weisgerber, who were fellow students of mine. [...]. Kandinsky was quiet and mixed the colours on his palette with the greatest diligence and, so it seemed to me, with a kind of studiousness, peering very closely at what he was doing.&rdquo; <br />Paul Klee, Autobiographical text for Wilhelm Hausenstein, 1919</p>
<p>&ldquo;[...] I served Beauty by drawing her enemies (caricature, satire).&rdquo; <br />Paul Klee, Diaries I, 1901</p>
<p>"In your works, I sense primeval, bygone things wedded with mystical vibrations of spiritual possibilities for the future." <br />Alfred Kubin to Wassily Kandinsky, 5.5.1910</p>
<p>Wassily Kandinsky moves to Munich in 1896 and studies at Anton Ažbe&rsquo;s private school of painting from 1897 to 1899, and, starting in 1900, at the Kunstakademie (Academy of Fine Arts) in Munich with Franz von Stuck. Paul Klee arrives in Munich in 1898 and initially attends the drawing school of Heinrich Knirr. Beginning in 1900, he also attends Stuck&rsquo;s painting class, but without getting to know Kandinsky better.</p>
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<h4 style="text-align: justify;">The Blue Rider</h4>
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<p>&ldquo;Kandinsky wants to organize a new society of artists. Personal acquaintance has given me a somewhat deeper confidence in him. He is somebody and has an exceptionally fine, clear mind.&rdquo; <br />Paul Klee, Diaries III, 1911</p>
<p>&ldquo;1906 [...] I thought I had come into the clear in art when for the first time I was able to apply an abstract style to nature.&rdquo; <br />Paul Klee, Autobiographical text for Wilhelm Hausenstein, 1919</p>
<p>&ldquo;Kandinsky, Wassily &ndash; painter, printmaker and author &ndash; the first painter to base painting on purely pictorial means of expression and abandon objects in his pictures.&rdquo; Wassily Kandinsky, &ldquo;Self-characterisation&rdquo;, in: Das Kunstblatt, 1919</p>
<p>Kandinsky is a painter from the beginning. The thirteen- year-younger Klee, in contrast, is a very talented&nbsp;draughtsman and assesses his painting abilities very self-critically. Starting in 1909, Kandinsky devises a revolutionary new pictorial language with his abstract, large-format paintings. In 1911, he establishes the artists&rsquo; association Der Blaue Reiter along with Franz Marc; he gets to know Paul Klee in the autumn of the year. In May 1912, Kandinsky publishes the Almanach Der Blaue Reiter, in which Klee is represented with a drawing.</p>
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<h4 style="text-align: justify;">Music</h4>
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<p>&ldquo;Color is the keyboard. The eye is the hammer. The soul is the piano, with its many strings. The artist is the hand that purposefully sets the soul vibrating by means of this or that key.&rdquo; <br />Wassily Kandinsky, On the Spiritual in Art, 1912</p>
<p>&ldquo;Polyphonic painting is superior to music in that, here, the time element becomes a spatial element. The notion of simultaneity stands out even more richly.&rdquo; <br />Paul Klee, Diaries III, 1917</p>
<p>&ldquo;In art, too, there is room enough for exact research, [...]. What was accomplished in music before the end of the eighteenth century has hardly been begun in the pictorial field.&rdquo; <br />Paul Klee, Exact experiments in the realm of art, 1928</p>
<p>The connection between music and painting is one of the central themes in the work of both artists. Kandinsky spoke of the &ldquo;inner harmony&ldquo; of his pictures and published his stage composition Der Gelbe Klang (The Yellow Sound)&nbsp;in the Almanach Der Blaue Reiter in 1912. In 1928, he designed stage images for Mussorgsky&rsquo;s piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition. <br />Klee, who himself played the violin superbly, developed his art through artistic analogies to musical structures. He considered his "polyphonic" (for several voices) paintings to be the highest level of this consonance.</p>
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<h4 style="text-align: justify;">Weimar</h4>
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<p>&ldquo;The students&rsquo; relationship to Kandinsky was very respectful. [...] What he said was always insightful and more or less documented. In the case of Klee, in contrast, everything was always up in the air. You could make what you wanted of it.&rdquo; <br />Gunta St&ouml;lzl, in: Das Werk, 11, 1968</p>
<p>&ldquo;Kandinsky&rsquo;s teaching: scientifically rigorous examination of colour and form. Example: seek the corresponding elementary colour for the three forms (triangle, square and circle). It was decided that they are yellow for the triangle, blue for the circle and red for the square; so to say, once and for all.&rdquo; <br />Oskar Schlemmer to Otto Meyer-Amden, 21.10.1923</p>
<p>Paul Klee comes to the Bauhaus in Weimar in March 1921, Kandinsky in June 1922, after having had to leave Germany and return to Russia. As masters and teaching colleagues, they are the supporting pillars of the Bauhaus. Artistically, Klee&rsquo;s work during the Weimar period is pluralistic and ranges from narrative scenes to nearly abstract works. Kandinsky, in contrast, strives for a &ldquo;basso continuo&rdquo; in&nbsp;painting based on fixed relationships of colour and form. Klee&rsquo;s openness and individual design approach contrasts with Kandinsky&rsquo;s rigorous, normative consistency.</p>
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<h4 style="text-align: justify;">Dessau</h4>
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<p>&ldquo;Kandinsky and Klee: the two artists [...] have been named together more and more frequently. [...] Since: is it supposed to be a mere coincidence that, in quiet, remote Dessau [...] two creative spirits equally liberated from the burden of earthly problems &ndash; connecting East and West &ndash; live under one roof, or is it a wake-up call, a sign of what is to come?!&rdquo; <br />Fannina W. Halle, in: Das Kunstblatt, 1929</p>
<p>&ldquo;at the bauhaus, klee exuded a healthy, generative atmosphere &ndash; as a great artist and as a lucid, pure human being.&rdquo; <br />Wassily Kandinsky, bauhaus. zeitschrift f&uuml;r gestaltung, no. 3, 1931</p>
<p>&ldquo;Yesterday was shaped by Kandinsky&rsquo;s move. [...] This departure is what proves something for me. [...] It is a friendship that overcomes a number of negative items, because the plus side stands firm and, in particular, because there is a link to my productive youth.&rdquo; <br />Paul Klee to Lily Klee, 11.12.1932</p>
<p>At the Bauhaus in Dessau, Klee and Kandinsky move closer to one another in the years 1925&ndash;1931/33. While a formalizing and geometricizing can be found in Klee&rsquo;s work, Kandinsky loosens up the rigorous pictorial vocabulary in his work. And while the narrative element recedes in Klee&rsquo;s work, in Kandinsky&rsquo;s pictures, allusions to the&nbsp;figurative increasingly provide an additional content-related dimension. A true pictorial dialogue emerges, in which the two artists take up the same motifs or techniques and each translate them into their own language.</p>
<p><strong class="zpk_t_strong">Square Paintings </strong><br />The first signs of the reduction of representation to square forms appear in Klee&rsquo;s work from 1914, when he broke down motifs into geometrical colour fields. During his time at the Bauhaus he ceased to structure his colour planes on the basis of the impression of nature, instead developing purely abstract compositions. <br />Kandinsky did not paint pure square paintings. However the fundamental forms of the square, the triangle and the circle remain central pictorial elements in his work. With both artists the abstract geometric compositions can be seen as an engagement with the underlying painterly media of colour and form.</p>
<p><strong class="zpk_t_strong">Movement </strong><br />The depiction of movement was a central concern for both artists. Arrows and triangles indicate direction, rotation and diagonals produce an impression of impulsion and vibration. <br />The temporality of music and rhythm also play an important part in these ideas around movement with both artists.</p>
<p><strong class="zpk_t_strong">Spray Technique</strong> <br />The use of the spray technique in the work of Klee and Kandinsky can be seen in the context of discussions of mechanical means of representation at the Bauhaus. Towards the end of the Weimar Republic the spray technique became an important means of composition for Klee. Using a brush drawn over a sieve, or a pulveriser, he sprayed the picture surface with watercolour or gouache paint. Rather later than Klee, Kandinsky too used the spray technique. Klee connected the technique with figurative representations, while Kandinsky remained mostly abstract.</p>
<p><strong class="zpk_t_strong">Constructive &ndash; Figurative </strong><br />In the second half of the 1920s Klee and Kandinsky came surprisingly close to one another in artistic terms. Influenced by Constructivism, Klee increasingly turned to geometric forms and reduced narrative elements in his work. In contrast, figurative elements gained importance in Kandinsky&rsquo;s work. Abstraction and figuration now no longer exclude one another in his work, but instead merge seamlessly.</p>
<p><strong class="zpk_t_strong">Balance &amp; Stability </strong><br />For Klee, the state of equilibrium was a principle both of art and life. Figures such as the tightrope walker and other acrobats are symbols of the quest for a balance in existence. He connected balance not with rigid symmetry and pleasant harmony, but with the creative potential of a&nbsp;changeable state. <br />In contrast, tensions were at the centre of Kandinsky&rsquo;s creative thinking. Many of his compositions and many of his picture titles refer to the juxtaposition of different things.</p>
<p><strong class="zpk_t_strong">At the Edge of Nature</strong> <br />From the beginning of his career, the study of nature was the basis of Klee&rsquo;s artistic work. But the copying of nature quickly lost significance for him, and made way for the exploration of natural fundamental structures and processes. <br />On the other hand Kandinsky saw art and nature as mutually exclusive opposites, and avoided any suggestions of natural phenomena. In certain phases of his work, however, he devoted himself more openly to nature. Finally, in the 1930s, the shapes of lower life forms become one of his most important sources of inspiration.</p>
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<h4 style="text-align: justify;">1933</h4>
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<p>&ldquo;We do not want to leave Germany forever. Something I would not be able to manage at all, since my roots sit too deep in German soil.&rdquo; <br />Wassily Kandinsky to Will Grohmann, 4.12.1933</p>
<p>&ldquo;Well, we will indeed see how things develop and what will become of our art! In any case, artists should remain apolitical and only think of their work and dedicate all their energies to this work.&rdquo; <br />Wassily Kandinsky to Werner Drewes, 10.4.1933</p>
<p>&ldquo;At the moment, an unpleasant feeling presses on my stomach, as though the new year of the unified, national Germany has assisted in the advent of an all too torch-parade-like sparkling wine bacchanal.&rdquo; <br />Paul Klee to Lily Klee, 1.2.1933</p>
<p>In January 1933, the National Socialists seize power in Germany. This profound development had existential consequences for both Kandinsky and Klee: Klee is dismissed as a professor, Kandinsky sees himself confronted with the impending closing of the Bauhaus. Both artists also react to the National Socialist seizure of power artistically: Numerous works are characterized by a sombre colourfulness tending towards shades of brown. While the threat becomes concretely or symbolically tangible in Klee&rsquo;s pictorial language, Kandinsky&rsquo;s pictures remain completely abstract.</p>
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<h4 style="text-align: justify;">New Beginning</h4>
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<p>&ldquo;It would be so nice to once again drink a cup of tea with you, as was so often and so pleasantly the case in Dessau. We frequently think of our former closeness, of watering flowers at the same time, of the bocce battles and &ndash; sad thought &ndash; of our collective complaints about the BH meetings. How far behind us all of that is!&rdquo; <br />Wassily Kandinsky to Paul Klee, 16.12.1936</p>
<p>&ldquo;Since not even sufficient time for my main business remains to me. Production is taking a larger magnitude at a faster tempo, and can no longer wholly keep up with these children. They issue forth.&rdquo; <br />Paul Klee to Felix Klee, 29.12.1939</p>
<p>&ldquo;Alors sempre avanti!&rdquo; <br />Wassily Kandinsky to Paul Klee, 12.12.1939</p>
<p>After being conclusively dismissed &ndash; Klee from the Academy of Fine Arts in D&uuml;sseldorf, Kandinsky from the Bauhaus in Berlin &ndash; both artists left Germany in December 1933. Klee returned to his home city Bern, Kandinsky emigrated to Paris. Kandinsky was more intensely focused on a making new beginning than Klee, and quickly altered his style. The geometry of his time at the Bauhaus receded, making room for biomorphic figures. Their bright colourfulness conveyed optimism and a focus on going forward. After arriving in his old-new home, Klee, in contrast, initially reacted with irritation. Motifs of sadness and rootlessness represent this symbolically. His life was moreover determined by an illness that severely affected his energy to work from 1935 until his premature death in 1940. It was first starting in 1937 that he also found a new beginning and experienced, despite or perhaps because of the illness, a true creative frenzy. </p>
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<h4 style="text-align: justify;">PATRONAT</h4>
<div class="kmb_txt_paragraph">
<p style="text-align: justify;">Alain Berset, Federal Councillor | Hans-J&uuml;rg K&auml;ser, Regierungsratspr&auml;sident des Kantons Bern | Alexander Tsch&auml;pp&auml;t, Stadtpr&auml;sident Bern</p>
</div>Sun, 02 Aug 2015 08:52:37 +0000http://www.artslant.com/ew/Events/listhttp://www.artslant.com/ew/Events/list
Marlene Aron, Lecturer - The Butler Institute of American Art (Youngstown) - August 16th 2:00 PM - 3:30 PMSun, 02 Aug 2015 08:35:35 +0000http://www.artslant.com/ew/Events/listhttp://www.artslant.com/ew/Events/list
- Portland Art Museum - June 27th - January 3rd, 2016<p style="text-align: justify;">Ansel Adams, Paul Strand, and Edward Weston and his son Brett each produced significant, limited-edition portfolios for the mid-20th century&rsquo;s burgeoning photography market, while Minor White assembled &ldquo;sequences&rdquo;&mdash;painstakingly assembled and periodically reworked groupings of photographs. FOTOFOLIO brings together four portfolios and one sequence in a single exhibition, charting each artist&rsquo;s motivations surrounding image selection, production, and order. These complete portfolios and sequence, displayed as originally assembled, encourage visitors to experience the photographic suites in their entirety and discover new relationships among the works.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em>FOTOFOLIO is organized by the Portland Art Museum and curated by Julia Dolan, Ph.D., The Minor White Curator of Photography.</em></p>Fri, 31 Jul 2015 06:41:02 +0000http://www.artslant.com/ew/Events/listhttp://www.artslant.com/ew/Events/list
- Portland Art Museum - November 1st, 2014 - October 18th<p style="text-align: justify;">Among the great ceramic traditions of the world, the Japanese alone sustain a thriving studio potter industry. More than 10,000 Japanese potters make a living crafting tea bowls, sak&eacute; bottles, flower vases, and tableware. Whether crafted of unglazed stoneware or refined porcelain, these intimately scaled art works are a cherished part of daily life in Japan.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Contemporary masters of clay art in Japan are deeply aware of their traditions in thrown, hand-built, carved or molded forms; they celebrate a reverence for the unique qualities of the material and embrace the unpredictability of the firing process. Wares by Nakazato Takashi and Yoshida Yukihiko, both potters in their late seventies, exemplify the best of Japan&rsquo;s enduring taste for&nbsp;<em>wabi-sabi</em>, an austere simplicity infused with emotional depth. Other artists, consciously working within global idioms, stretch the boundaries of utility to explore ever more sculptural forms, as in Hoshino Satoru&rsquo;s writhing, organic&nbsp;<em>Spring Snow No. 12</em>, or the frozen motion of Fujikasa Satoko&rsquo;s&nbsp;<em>Flow #1</em>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em>Contemporary Japanese Clay</em>&nbsp;celebrates artistic innovation and superb craftsmanship in Japanese ceramics from the 1950s to the present, revealing the growth of the Museum&rsquo;s holdings in this fascinating art form.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em>Organized by the Portland Art Museum and curated by Maribeth Graybill, Ph.D., The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Curator of Asian Art.</em></p>Fri, 31 Jul 2015 06:38:40 +0000http://www.artslant.com/ew/Events/listhttp://www.artslant.com/ew/Events/list
David Hockney - Portland Art Museum - April 18th - August 2nd<p style="text-align: justify;">This spring, the Museum is proud to partner with the Portland Opera and the David Hockney Foundation to present&nbsp;<em>David Hockney: A Rake&rsquo;s Progress</em>. Hockney, one of the most significant artists of our generation, has long engaged with the paintings and engravings of 18th-century English artist William Hogarth. Hockney was particularly captivated by Hogarth&rsquo;s series&nbsp;<em>The Rake&rsquo;s Progress</em>, 1733, which chronicles the rise and fall of Tom Rakewell, the son and heir of a rich merchant, who squanders his money on luxurious living, prostitution, and gambling. After a trip to New York, Hockney produced his own interpretation of the story. Hockney&rsquo;s&nbsp;<em>A Rake&rsquo;s Progress</em>&nbsp;was published as a portfolio of 16 etchings in 1963 and is considered one of the high points of his early career.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In 1975, Hockney collaborated with director John Cox to create a new production of Igor Stravinsky&rsquo;s opera based on Hogarth&rsquo;s&nbsp;<em>The Rake&rsquo;s Progress</em>. Hockney drew inspiration from the 18th-century master&rsquo;s engravings, endowing the set designs and costumes with a linearity that speaks not only to the language of prints, but also to the modern angularity of Stravinsky&rsquo;s score. The result is both playful and rigorous, a perfect blend of the aural and visual.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The exhibition is an exciting look into Hockney&rsquo;s creative process. It will feature etchings, drawings, models, and watercolors that depict the 1975 opera&rsquo;s set design from initial idea to final concept, offering a rare glimpse into working methods of one of England&rsquo;s finest living artists.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The exhibition of this work is complemented by&nbsp;<a href="http://www.portlandopera.org/production/the-rakes-progress/" target="_blank">the Portland Opera&rsquo;s production of&nbsp;<em>The Rake&rsquo;s Progress</em></a>&nbsp;on June 11, 12, and 14, 2015, featuring Hockney&rsquo;s celebrated scenic and costume designs.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em>Organized by the Portland Art Museum and curated by Mary Weaver Chapin, Ph.D., Curator of Graphic Arts, in cooperation with the David Hockney Foundation.</em></p>
<div class="exhibition-sponsors">
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">SPONSORS:</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;">This exhibition is supported in part by The Boeing Company, Mary Chomenko Hinckley and Greg Hinckley, and the Vivian and Gordon Gilkey Endowment for Graphic Arts.</p>
</div>Fri, 31 Jul 2015 06:37:30 +0000http://www.artslant.com/ew/Events/listhttp://www.artslant.com/ew/Events/list
Ai Weiwei - Portland Art Museum - May 23rd - September 13th<p style="text-align: justify;">The Museum is pleased to present an exhibition of&nbsp;<em>Ai Weiwei&rsquo;s Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads: Gold (2010)</em>, on view this summer in the Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Sculpture Court.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The installation consists of a dozen gilded bronze sculptures representing the animal symbols from the traditional Chinese zodiac.<br />The artist drew inspiration for the 12 heads from those originally located at Yuanming Yuan (Old Summer Palace), an imperial retreat of palaces and European-style gardens built outside of Beijing in the 18th and 19th centuries by Emperor Qianlong. Designed and engineered by two European Jesuits, Giuseppe Castiglione and Michel Benoit, the heads originally functioned as an ornate fountain clock that would spout water at two-hour intervals.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Once accessible only to the elite of 18th-century Chinese society, the garden was destroyed and looted by Anglo-French troops in 1860 during the Second Opium War, displacing the original zodiac heads. The seven heads known to exist (Monkey, Pig, Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, and Horse) have all been returned to China.&nbsp;<em>Circle of Animals/ Zodiac Heads: Gold</em>&nbsp;engages issues of looting, repatriation, and cultural heritage while expanding upon ongoing themes in Ai&rsquo;s work of the &ldquo;fake&rdquo; and &ldquo;copy&rdquo; in relation to the original.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Ai Weiwei (born 1957, Beijing, China) is a renowned contemporary artist, architectural designer, and social activist who employs a wide range of media. He has been openly critical of the Chinese government&rsquo;s stance on democracy and record of human rights violations, investigated government corruption and coverups, and was held for 81 days at an undisclosed location in 2011. According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, he is currently prohibited from leaving China without permission.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em>Ai Weiwei&rsquo;s Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads</em>&nbsp;collection consists of two series: Bronze and Gold. The installation on view at the Portland Art Museum is one of eight smaller gilded editions, intended for interior display. Another series was produced as large-size in bronze, almost 10 feet high and intended for outdoor display.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">&ldquo;We&rsquo;re delighted to present this important work by one of the world&rsquo;s leading contemporary artists,&rdquo; said Brian Ferriso, The Marilyn H. and<br />Dr. Robert B. Pamplin Jr. Director. &ldquo;Ai Weiwei&rsquo;s&nbsp;<em>Circle of Animals</em>&nbsp;reflects the Museum&rsquo;s commitment to the art of today, and it furthers our mission of bringing the world to Oregon. Ai Weiwei&rsquo;s work reveals layers of history while bringing attention to current economic, political and collecting issues.&rdquo;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em>Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads: Gold&nbsp;</em>builds on a strong run of contemporary art exhibitions at the Portland Art Museum. In 2014, the Portland Art Museum was the first museum in North America to exhibit Richard Mosse&rsquo;s groundbreaking installation,&nbsp;<a title="The Enclave" href="http://portlandartmuseum.org/exhibitions/enclave/" target="_blank"><em>The Enclave</em></a>.&nbsp;Recent exhibitions in the Contemporary Art Series funded by the Miller Meigs Endowment for Contemporary Art have focused on&nbsp;significant artists including&nbsp;<a title="Mike Kelley" href="http://portlandartmuseum.org/exhibitions/mike-kelley/" target="_blank">Mike Kelley</a>&nbsp;(2012),&nbsp;<a title="Cindy Sherman" href="http://portlandartmuseum.org/exhibitions/cindy-sherman/" target="_blank">Cindy Sherman</a>&nbsp;(2012),&nbsp;<a title="Sherrie Levine" href="http://portlandartmuseum.org/exhibitions/sherrie-levine/" target="_blank">Sherrie Levine</a>(2013), and&nbsp;<a title="Joel Shapiro" href="http://portlandartmuseum.org/exhibitions/joel-shapiro-2/" target="_blank">Joel Shapiro</a>&nbsp;(2014).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em>This exhibition is presented at the Portland Art Museum courtesy of Heather James Fine Art, and curated by Brian J. Ferriso, The Marilyn H. and Dr. Robert B. Pamplin Jr. Director.</em></p>
<div class="exhibition-sponsors">
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">SPONSORS:</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Heather Sacre and James Carona, Miller Meigs Endowment for Contemporary Art, Bonnie Serkin and Will Emery, Jim and Susan Winkler, The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, and the Exhibition Series Sponsors.</p>
</div>Fri, 31 Jul 2015 06:35:25 +0000http://www.artslant.com/ew/Events/listhttp://www.artslant.com/ew/Events/list
- Portland Art Museum - June 13th - September 13thFri, 31 Jul 2015 06:33:28 +0000http://www.artslant.com/ew/Events/listhttp://www.artslant.com/ew/Events/list
Margie Livingston - Portland Art Museum - July 25th - November 15th<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">Seattle artist&nbsp;<a title="Margie Livingston" href="http://margie.net/" target="_blank">Margie Livingston</a>&nbsp;makes sculptural objects out of paint, pouring gallons of acrylic to form skins that she hangs on nails, drapes over pegs, leans against the wall, piles like discarded laundry, and cuts into planks. Her paint is both object and subject&mdash;it may be a minimal abstract shape that stretched over an armature becomes a table, or it may seem like flesh but resemble a net or wooden paneled wall. The dichotomy between object and subject creates seductive, visceral, and mysterious works of art.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">Livingston states: &ldquo;Like the organic, sensual physicality of works by artists Lynda Benglis and Eva Hesse, my relationship with the draped paintings is physical, body to body. They exist in real space, rather than the illusional space of painting. As I must stroke the paint to shape it, it becomes so much like skin that the gesture is akin to a caress. I also play with the weight of painting, letting gravity reveal the material&rsquo;s flexibility so the works allow painting&rsquo;s historical significance to reflect back on itself.&rdquo;</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><em>APEX is an ongoing series of exhibitions of Northwest-based artists, curated by Bonnie Laing-Malcolmson, The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Curator of Northwest Art.</em></span></p>
<div class="exhibition-sponsors" style="text-align: justify;">
<h2><span style="font-size: small;">SPONSORS:</span></h2>
<span style="font-size: small;"><em>The APEX series is supported in part by The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Endowments for Northwest Art and the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.</em></span></div>Fri, 31 Jul 2015 06:30:58 +0000http://www.artslant.com/ew/Events/listhttp://www.artslant.com/ew/Events/list